Just the other day, my friend walked into my place with a carton full of comic books. The brown box had an assortment of comic books – some were Marvel, some DC, and some Indian ones. I even found a rare Batman comic book that I had not seen with anyone until that moment.

What startled me that she picked up the entire box for just Rs 1,500, because someone in the city had decided to do away with them for more storage space! She later told me that she saw got to know about the deal on a Facebook page, and she could contact the seller directly from thereon and even managed to strike a bargain on the asking price.

Web sites such as Craigslist are not something new. They’ve been around for quite some time. And in India, Web sites such as Quickr and OLX allow users to post ads for just selling or buying about anything. What’s new here, then, is that these forums are on Facebook, and are a more personalised way of selling old stuff.

Selling everything

To check these out for myself, I went online to a Facebook group called ‘Second to none’. The motto was clear – “Reuse. Recycle. Don't discard. Resell. Don't waste. Share.” After checking out the ‘About’ section of the page, it was quite clear as to what could and could not be posted about. The things that you can sell on pages like 'Thrift Bazaar' are used goods, like motorcycles, TVs, refrigerators and even small stuff like old books, show pieces, collectors’ items like die cast model cars and a lot.

I even spotted an ad from a woman in Bangalore selling old jewellery for Rs 30 – her reason for selling was that she had too many of them and needed to update her accessory list. And that’s not all. There was even a listing for a set of 6 used plastic clothes hangers for Rs 40. A lot of folks on these groups also like to do away with stuff that they’ve been gifted but have no use for them (or no longer like the person who gifted them the things).

Transparent dealings

But I have seen such items being sold on OLX and Quickr too, I thought. And then I realised that the page owners and administrators, as on had laid down some clear rules about selling on their groups. To keep brokers and direct dealers away, and making sure that the groups remain dedicated to the idea of reusing and recycling, they strictly ban new products, old or surplus stocks from stores etc.

If anyone has bought something but is selling it without using it, the page owners suggest the sellers to give a reason for selling. And people are very upfront as to why they’re selling – I saw reasons like “It was a bad decision”, “Bought it for my girlfriend but she dumped me” or “I bought it but now I hate the colour”. Moreover, it is mandatory to post a clear photograph of the article to be sold, along with the asking price and details. The owners also recommend that sellers price their wares reasonably low for used goods and sell bought/received goods at less than the market prices.

Localised deals

Most of these users sell goods like used tables, bean bags, helmets, shoe racks etc. Sending them by courier to another city would involve a lot of careful packing but more importantly the price of packaging and sending by courier would be just not worth spending on, by both seller and buyer. Hence, they usually declare that they would be interested in buyers from the same city who would be able to pick up the goods by themselves, and pay by cash on the spot.

Furthermore, there are city-specific pages dedicated to selling used goods. Bangalore has Garden City Shopping, Coimbatore has Kovai Flea Market, Chennai has Moore Market and so on. Apart from doing well to the environment by promoting recycling and reusing, these pages give the users a very transparent environment to sell the most unlikely goods. They also spare the users the annoyance that is registering mobile numbers and advertisements. The page owners don’t make any ad money of any sorts – they just give the users a platform to set up their own small garage sales. And some users also use it as a platform for humour – I saw an ad that said “Wedding suit for sale – used once by mistake.”

sabyasachi.b@thehindu.co.in

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